Good niche military history.
An account of an overlooked piece of World War II history.
During the early hours before the massive Normandy landing on June 6, 1944, thousands of Allied paratroopers descended behind German lines. Many missed their drop zones, including two companies that landed 15 miles away in the marshes of the Cotentin Peninsula. After dawn, the soldiers noticed a village atop a nearby hill, and about 180 men drifted in during the following days. Historians have described the resulting Battle of Graignes in passing, but Rabe, a Marine Corps veteran, emeritus professor of history at the University of Texas at Dallas, and son of one of the paratroopers, gives it his full attention. The story is particularly inspiring because the townspeople and surrounding farmers universally welcomed the soldiers, fed and sheltered them, gathered intelligence, and sent boats into the waterways to recover supplies. Unable to accomplish their original goal, the paratroopers hoped to delay German forces racing toward the invasion beaches 20 miles away. Lightly armed with no artillery, tanks, or antitank weapons, they could not hope to do so for long. They drove off initial attacks by an SS division but were soon devastated by superior numbers and artillery fire. Survivors abandoned the city, approximately 110 eventually reaching Allied lines. After accepting the surrender of a doctor, two medics, and 14 wounded left behind, German soldiers shot them. They also killed 44 French civilians and burned Graignes to the ground after an orgy of pillaging and looting. Overwhelmed by surrounding events, this defense of an obscure village did not attract attention until decades had passed and memories became spotty and perhaps idealized. Rabe does a fine resurrection job, assembling his material and filling out the text with mostly engaging diversions, including the history of American airborne forces, biographies of its two leading generals (who were preoccupied elsewhere), details of the Normandy landings, and subsequent battles across France.
Good niche military history.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-009-20637-2
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Cambridge Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
